Defending Against Debanking: Protecting Christians from Financial Discrimination

What is debanking?

In recent years, the term “debanking” has gained significant notoriety, highlighting a controversial practice in which banks and other financial institutions close accounts or deny services without warning or chance of appeal. Banks typically justify their decision to debank on the basis that the account holder or potential client poses a financial, legal or reputational risk to the bank.

But critics argue that debanking, based on vague and subjective grounds like “reputational risk,” “social risk,” “misinformation” or “hate speech,” can encroach on civil liberties, particularly the rights to religious freedom and free speech, leading to unfair discrimination and economic exclusion.

Banks wield significant power in shaping public discourse by controlling access to financial services. Individuals or organizations that publicly espouse views or support causes that do not align with the values or beliefs of a bank’s leadership — or even the prevailing social norms — could find their accounts unexpectedly closed. Since many financial institutions share data, their financial ostracization could become systemic, limiting their access to essential financial services and hindering their ability to promote or practice their beliefs.

How can debanking impact Christians?

For over 20 years, GuideStone Funds^® has come alongside evangelical Christians to help build their secure financial future, and we find the rise of debanking a troubling trend.

Without clear and objective guidelines, debanking poses a threat to the Christian community. Christians and ministries that hold traditional biblical views on current hot-button issues such as abortion, gender and sexuality could lose access to banking services, making it difficult to conduct routine financial transactions, disrupting their day-to-day activities and jeopardizing their right to practice their faith and spread the Gospel.

What is GuideStone doing to protect investors and discourage debanking?

At GuideStone^®, we developed our corporate engagement program to encourage the corporations we’ve invested in to adopt more Christ-like practices that honor and respect the rights of all individuals.

We believe it is essential for any company to provide financial services on an equal basis without regard to factors such as race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or social, political, or religious views.

Like many Americans, we are concerned with the rising trend of financial institutions politicizing their services. When JPMorgan Chase^® and Bank of America^® recently terminated their services with two Christian faith-based organizations for nebulous risk tolerance reasons, we joined like-minded advocacy organizations and other faith-based investors to urge them to reconsider their decisions and the policies that drove them.

These efforts were a mixture of letter writing, leadership dialogue and supporting proxy ballot initiatives to deliver transparency and risk reporting around criteria for debanking. As a result of our collaboration, Chase removed its vague “social risk” policy, which it had used several times to justify ideologically motivated debanking, effective early 2024. The Bank of America case remains outstanding as of late 2024, but we remain optimistic for a positive resolution.

Our efforts to discourage debanking practices are just one example of how GuideStone strives to protect values and freedoms that can make an impact for God’s Kingdom. Through our ongoing corporate engagement efforts, we will continue to address issues that may detrimentally affect not only Christians but all people. We remain committed to ensuring that our investments reflect biblical principles. Together, we can make the Christian voice heard and advance a marketplace that honors God and serves all people with integrity.

Read Bloomberg’s interview with GuideStone’s Will Lofland, managing director, investment sales, to learn more about our efforts to make the Christian voice heard in the marketplace.